Nightshade by Brooke Radley

Nightshade by Brooke Radley

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is the first book that I have read by this author.

This is a very solid book. With . . . well . . . a certain amount of ‘problems’ I had to overlook to enjoy the book. Which I mostly did.

Eleanor Reed, and some random dude (Ben), are sent undercover into the largest criminal gang in the city. There is a very major drug problem impacting the city, and the city council want to end it and have information that the Nightshade Brotherhood is responsible. This information comes from a spy who has been implanted into this thief gang and will act as the new spies’ access-point to the gang.

Ben and Eleanor are tasked with the mission of being inserted into the brotherhood via Toby – long time spy imbedded in the brotherhood. They have a week to complete their mission. (three problems right off the bat – 1) a week? seriously? 2) as will be mentioned below, Ben and Eleanor are super inexperienced, and have no training for this mission; 3) why the fuck isn’t Toby getting this information? (long time spy, experienced, and, apparently, despite being a long time spy . . . has ‘other means’ to communicate with the council which doesn’t make use of the ‘report directly to the council’ which is the excuse for having inexperience untrained spies).

We now come to one of those problems that I have, and overlooked, while enjoying the book. Both Ben and Eleanor are brand-new in their professions. Eleanor just graduated from the Darten Academy – the magic school; while Ben just graduated from . . . whatever they have set up for solider types. Neither has training as spies. Neither has experience. And the reason for having these two inserted as spies is kind of stupid (these two instead of, you know, actual spies, or, at the very least, people trained to be spies even if they lack experience). That reason? Spies report to the council, it is assumed that the council is watched, therefore the ability to use a spy decreases with use (which is . . . dim on many levels – they believe this so . . . don’t have them report directly to the council chambers? I mean, the whole reason Eleanor is going along on this spy mission is because she has the ability to send messages via water to the council so . . . . spies don’t need to report directly to the council (and even if they did, do it elsewhere, eh?). So . . . they, instead of experienced spies, use newly graduated people. Except . . . one is from the mage academy. This is housed in a building literally right next door to the castle/council chamber. And the academy, while being supposedly open to any and everyone with even a token amount of magic, is quite small. It wouldn’t be that hard to learn who the students are; or, just learn who the graduates are. So the council is getting around using ‘known’ spies (aka, experienced trained spies) by way of using . . . . people who should be known to their ‘enemies’ (and, seriously, if you, the reader of my review, is shaking their heads at me – Eleanor Reed, in addition to being newly graduated from a well known mage school located adjacent to the castle, is also . . . . the niece of the most famous mage around who also sits on the city council (okay, replace ‘city’ with King. It’s the King’s council). Which the reader is reminded of constantly – what with how often Eleanor ducked and tried to hide while wandering around – ‘she’s a Reed!’; also reminded of constantly? How no one actually trusts her and are constantly trying to ‘protect’ her – and by that I’m referring to her employers and co-workers (Ben/Toby) not the Brotherhood specifically.

And Ben? Trained militia dude. Untrained at thief stuff. And quite incompetent at thief stuff, as it turns out. He probably sticks out like a sore thumb. An obvious ‘cop’ (or obvious soldier). But . . . whatever.

Right, so. I must have hated this book, eh? Why no. While I didn’t love the book, I did really enjoy it – sink into the atmosphere of what unfolded. Follow along as the spies dug themselves into the Brotherhood. Watch a budding romance unfold. Fun. Deeper than I expected. Much better written than expected.

Did spot a few things in reviews before I read the book that indicated that there was ‘issues’ with the ending. I liked the ending, though I did get that warning so . . . not sure how I’d have reacted/thought of the ending without that ‘warning’.

Rating: 4.52

January 24 2017




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